As any football supporter knows, Northampton has long been associated with shoemaking, but the nickname of Northampton Town FC — The Cobblers — is not a mere historical vestige. There remains a small but strong shoemaking industry, the only one of significance left in Britain, with manufacturers largely clustered around the top end of the market.

Crockett & Jones was founded in Northampton in 1879. Jonathan Jones, below right, its managing director and great-grandson of the original Jones, emphasises the importance of the local skills base to the company’s durability. “You won’t find a better quality shoe than this,” he says, inspecting a brown Oxford in the Crockett & Jones finishing room.

He is surrounded by thousands of classic men’s shoes, which sell for between £250 and £400. Some are boxed and ready for dispatch to New York, Paris and London. Others are still on their heavy lasts. The air is thick with the smell of leather.

Apart from the occasional radio or poster, there is little in sight that would be unfamiliar to the factory’s first workers. “Northampton has always been famous for men’s shoes. Around the world, Britain is famous for Goodyear-welted construction. These shoes are built to last.”

Goodyear-welted shoes are individually crafted on lasts, which Mr Jones says makes them more comfortable and durable.

Crockett & Jones sells through department stores and a handful of retail outlets in London, Paris, Brussels and New York. It also makes some high-end “own label” products.

The weak pound means that business in London is booming, but the parlous state of the American consumer economy is making life difficult. More than two thirds of its output is destined for the American market. So what happens on Wall Street, as bankers rein in their spending in Manhattan department stores, has a knock-on effect in this red-brick Victorian suburb of Northampton.

For a start, the pubs are likely to be slightly fuller on Friday afternoons, as the factory has gone on short-time working on Fridays. The company avoided redundancies because it wanted to retain the skill base of the 200 or so workers in the factory. “We didn’t want to lose any skilled people,” Mr Jones said.

Production is down about 10 per cent, but, after a decade of steady growth of between 3 to 5 per cent per year, the decline has been manageable.

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